Abstract

Millions of people were forced to emigrate when World War II came to an end in 1945. Migration processes were particularly pronounced in East Prussia, the German territory that was partitioned between Poland and the USSR after the war. Germans fled from East Prussia, and their farms were settled by newcomers from central Poland and the Eastern Borderlands that had been ceded to the Soviet Union. This article discusses the narrative surrounding the wave of post-war migration in Polish and German academia, museums and informal education. An analysis of textbooks and academic scripts revealed that this topic has received broad coverage in the German educational system. Museum exhibitions focusing on emigration from East Prussia and the Eastern Borderlands were also examined, and the results of the analysis indicate that German museums displayed a greater interest in the topic.In the last step, websites dedicated to migration issues were compared as a form of informal education. The comparison revealed a similar number of websites as well as similar levels of activity in Polish and German websites.

Highlights

  • Until 1945, East Prussia formed a national and ethnical conglomerate as a part of the German state

  • East Prussia was divided after the war between Poland and the Soviet Union

  • In the last twenty years, the historiography of the Prussian lands has increasingly emphasized the multicultural aspect of this region, previously, in Germany and later in the three countries that acquired the territory of East Prussia after World War II, this area was presented from a national and ethnocentric perspective2

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Summary

Izabela Lewandowska

The case of East Prussia / Warmia and Mazury in 1945. Streszczenie: W 1945 roku zakończyła się II wojna światowa, w wyniku której miliony osób zmuszone zostały do migracji. Procesy te były bardzo wyraźne na obszarze Prus Wschodnich, terytorium Niemiec, które przypadło Polsce i ZSRR. Z obszaru tego uciekali Niemcy, a ich gospodarstwa zasiedlano Polakami zarówno z centralnej Polski, jak i Kresów Wschodnich, które po wojnie przypadły Związkowi Radzieckiemu. Artykuł przedstawia prezentację problemu powojennych migracji w edukacji szkolnej, muzealnej i nieformalnej zarówno na terenie Niemiec, jak i Polski. Następnie przeanalizowano wystawy muzealne dotyczące migracji z Prus Wschodnich i z Kresów Wschodnich. Na koniec wskazano strony internetowe poświęcone migracjom, jako formę edukacji nieformalnej. W tym wypadku zarówno Polacy, jak i Niemcy wykazują się sporą aktywnością. Słowa kluczowe: Prusy Wschodnie, Warmia i Mazury, powojenne migracje, edukacja szkolna, muzealna, nieformalna

Introduction
Resettlement and migration in the light of the research literature
School education
Museum education
Informal education
Findings
Conclusions
Full Text
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